Next week, ALEC will host its annual conference in Chicago … but this is not just their regular gathering. It’s ALEC’s 40th anniversary, and they’ll be marking four decades of success as a front group for the Radical Right and corporate special interests with plenty of celebrating.

We’ll be there to crash the party.

People For the American Way is joining allies and activists for the largest anti-ALEC actions to date. You can be a part of it and make sure your voice is represented by joining our petition, which we’ll use in showing strength against ALEC and sending the message to ALEC legislators in Chicago next week.

When we joined efforts last year to pressure companies to break ties with ALEC, over 100,000 PFAW members took action -- and many of them took repeated action, targeting specific consumer brands. We had remarkable success, with companies like McDonald’s, Coca Cola, Pepsi, Proctor & Gamble, Amazon, Blue Cross, Kraft and many more officially ceasing their support of and involvement with the group.

Now we need to keep up that pressure and get ALEC’s legislator members to do the same -- to cut ties with ALEC, and stop pushing their radical pro-corporate and far-right agenda.

For years, PFAW and our affiliate PFAW Foundation have worked to expose the insidious influence of ALEC in state legislatures and the corporate special interests that are manipulating the legislative process via ALEC.

The public outcry against ALEC has caused nearly fifty corporations to drop out over the past several months. But now Facebook, Google and Yelp are looking to reverse that trend. The companies recently joined the group responsible for some of the most egregious anti-labor, anti-environment, anti-poor, and anti-minority legislation in the past decade. Now, we need to raise an outcry to show them that getting in bed with ALEC is unacceptable, before all the hard work over the past year is undone.

We can’t afford to have three major tech companies help finance a monstrosity like this right-wing lobbying group, and they can’t afford the bad press that comes with an ALEC membership. ALEC has become a toxic brand that image-conscious companies don’t want to be associated with.

ALEC worked in close conjunction with the NRA to push the controversial Stand Your Ground law onto dozens of states. ALEC helped private prison companies enact Arizona’s “papers please” law in order to fill up cells with Latinos. It has sponsored a host of horrific laws that are tearing down personal rights and handing over money to corporations. We simply cannot allow such practices to be condoned by major companies.

Our voices already shamed over fifty companies and nonprofits, including the likes of Amazon, Walmart, and Coca-Cola, into dropping out of the American Legislative Executive Council. Just recently, after months of pressure by students, Sallie Mae left the group. But if we don’t speak out now, Google, Facebook, and Yelp could start back the movement of corporate funding into ALEC.

Last year, our son Trayvon Martin was stalked, chased down and killed by George Zimmerman, and Zimmerman received no punishment whatsoever. That's in large part because Florida is one of at least 21 states with some form of 'Stand Your Ground' law which enables people like George Zimmerman to claim self-defense.

'Stand Your Ground' was never meant to give aggressors the opportunity to get away with murder, but that is what happened when our son Trayvon was killed. After Trayvon's death, law enforcement used the law as an excuse to refuse to arrest George Zimmerman. Even worse, the jury in the case was instructed to think of what Zimmerman did as self-defense, even though Zimmerman ignored instructions from the police and instigated conflict with our son, who was just trying to get home to his father.

We are shocked and heartbroken by the jury’s decision to allow our son’s killer to go free. Despite our despair, we must honor Trayvon’s legacy by doing all that we can to protect other young people from being targeted, pursued, and senselessly murdered.

We are not the only ones calling for 'Stand Your Ground' laws to be reviewed. President Obama spoke out on the need for review, and prominent Republicans like Senator John McCain have joined him. This is not a Democrat or Republican issue, it’s not ‘black’ or ‘white’ issue, it’s a wrong and right issue.

This is a matter of making sure that no other family will ever have to go through what we have been through. No parents should ever have to know what it feels like to watch your child's killer walk free.

Our hearts broke on the night of February 26, 2012 when George Zimmerman killed our son -- and we were stunned and devastated when the police refused to arrest Zimmerman. We petitioned for Zimmerman's arrest on Change.org, and after more than 2 million people joined our call, Zimmerman was charged with our son's murder. We felt so much closer to justice for Trayvon, and so grateful for the support of those who signed our petition.

But on July 13, 2013, our hearts broke again when the jury set Zimmerman free. Our hearts broke because it is so hard to accept that we can't protect Trayvon anymore. But we can fight to make sure that this never happens again.

We want to say thank you to all of you who have stood up for our son. Because of all your efforts, Trayvon’s life is celebrated all over the world. Please continue to stand with us as we fight to ensure that his legacy is to leave behind a safer and more peaceful world for all our sons and daughters.

Good petition. It might cause state legislators to realize what they are rubbing up against when dealing with ALEC.

I will say the thing is vague and written in the ows compliant style, with no legal teeth. I found a thread a few months back that had a link to a petition which really makes American citizens shine while totally putting ALEC on the spot.